Over the centuries the reputation of Njinga has been very mixed. Sade said she was the cruelist of women. Others said she was a noble lady. In Portugal in the twentieth-century she was typecast as a savage. Today, in Angola, the successor state to Ndongo, she is celebrated as an anti-imperialist freedom fighter. Heywood's biography is an attempt to give a balanced picture of a very fascinating woman.
Njinga died 350 years ago. During her life ...